ASIA-PACIFIC NATIONS TO BOOST EFFORTS TO CURB DISASTER RISK – UN

Nations in Asia and the Pacific – the world's most disaster-prone region – will bolster their cooperation to share information on disaster risk reduction, a new United Nations-backed commission has agreed.

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for 42 per cent of the world's natural disasters and a disproportionate 65 per cent of global disaster victims.

More than 200 representatives from governments, international organizations, non-governmental groups and the private sector attended the first-ever meeting of the Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction (CDRR), set up last year by the 62 member nations of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

The participants noted that knowledge of disaster risk reduction is dispersed and out of reach from those who set policy.

The Committee asked that ESCAP promote partnerships with UN entities such as the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), along with regional organizations, to better assist member countries.

Such cooperation "provides the opportunities to respond jointly to the needs of governments and communities to reduce the risks and vulnerability to extreme weather events, which is becoming more urgent with the impacts expected from climate change," said Salvano Briceño, UNISDR Director.

He added that the Committee will promote the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action, a 10-year plan to bolster the ability of nations and communities to respond to disasters agreed upon by 168 nations in 2005.
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COOPERATION AMONG ASIA-PACIFIC NATIONS CRITICAL TO REDUCE DISASTER RISK – UN

Collaboration between Governments in Asia and the Pacific is key to saving lives from natural disasters in the world's most prone region, a senior United Nations official stressed today at the first session of a new committee on disaster risk reduction.

The vulnerable Asia-Pacific region accounts for 42 per cent of the world's natural disasters, and a disproportionate 65 per cent of its victims.

In 2008 alone, almost a quarter of a million people died as a result of natural disasters in the region, representing 97 per cent of fatalities worldwide.

"Natural disasters pose a significant challenge to development in our region," said UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Executive Secretary Noeleen Heyzer, in her opening address to the three-day meeting.

"A person living in our region is four times more likely to be affected by natural disasters than someone living in Africa and 25 times more likely then someone living in Europe or North America," Ms. Heyzer told participants of the Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction (CDRR), which was formed by ESCAP.

At a high-level round table, delegates exchanged knowledge and experience with disaster risk reduction, and discussed the implications of integrating it into economic and social development planning and policy.

The group concluded that as complex information regarding danger, vulnerability and resources is spread throughout the region and often out of reach of decision-makers, cooperation is critical to effectively reduce the loss of lives and the social, economic and environmental impact of disasters.

Ms. Heyzer said that ESCAP would establish a mechanism for sharing information among disaster risk management authorities in the region, as well as produce the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report, which brings together information from Member States, provides socio-economic analysis of disaster risk reduction trends, identifies good practices, evaluates the state of reduction efforts in the region and highlights future priorities and trends.

Participants at the round table included ministers and senior officials responsible for disaster management from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Pakistan, Republic of Korea and Thailand.
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